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As the Northern Ireland Sheep Programme (NISP) comes to an end, the main outcomes of the project will be presented during a closing conference on Tuesday 21 February.
The host venue will be Greenmount Campus, Cafre, Co Antrim, starting at 7.30pm.
The conference is open to everyone and free to attend.
Should this date or location not suit farmers, the conference will be repeated with another event on Thursday 23 February.
On this occasion, the host venue will be the Mellon Country Inn, Omagh, Co Tyrone, with proceedings once again getting under way from 7.30pm.
During each event, there will be an opportunity to hear from the participating programme farmers about what they got out of their involvement.
Financial progress from 2019 to 2022 will be outlined for each farm, as well as trends in concentrate use, fertiliser use and lamb output.
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The NISP was launched back in late spring 2019 and involved nine farms located across Northern Ireland.
The programme was a joint collaboration between CAFRE, Dunbia and the Irish Farmers Journal.
The nine farms reflected a mix of land type, systems and geographical spread. Four farms operate hill units. A further two units work on heavy LFA soils with the remaining three farms being lowland units.
Programme adviser Senan White will also outline the steps taken to instigate changes across the various farms.
Changes
These changes have been relatively simple, starting with grassland management.
Fields low in pH, phosphate (P) and potash (K) have been singled out for lime and organic manure applications.
Other steps have seen rotational grazing implemented in various forms, ranging from a multiple paddock setup to simply splitting fields in two with a temporary electric fence.
Silage quality has also increased through earlier cutting dates and surplus grass being removed from the grazing platform, reducing concentrate use.
Breeding
There has also been strategic breeding programmes put in place, either to introduce more maternal bloodlines and increase lamb numbers, as well as selecting replacements based on flock records.
Several farmers are now using a farm software package.
Lambs are weighed at eight and 12 weeks old to indicate weight gain while on the ewe, highlighting the best maternal animals on farm.
Slaughter data and regular weighing is also captured on the software, flagging up the best terminal genetics on farm.
Rams are also selected with some form of performance data, either a €uro-Star rating or estimated breeding value (EBV).
Flock health was also addressed. Worming and fluke treatments are now carried out based on faecal sampling, rather than routine drenching.
Blood samples have been used for mineral supplementation.
One of the biggest changes has been the adoption of Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma (OPA) scanning, which is slowly becoming a major challenge for the sheep sector to overcome.
The side effects of OPA tend to be high barren rates and higher replacement rates as mortality tends to be higher in breeding ewes.
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